Fundtech Improves Service, Expands Business, and Lowers IT Overhead

A leader in financial services and technology, Fundtech hosts transaction processing services—payments and deposits—for 500 clients and counting. “Clients connect to our external FTP server via the web and we control all of the back-end data file movement on their behalf,” says Marni Jessie, Manager of Technical Support Services. “We make sure files move successfully from point A to point B.”

That seems simple but the cost of slow or errant transactions can be high. “Financial transactions always have strict deadlines,” says Jessie. Missed payments result in penalties, cash flow depends on timely deposits, and no one wants to wait for payroll.

Fundtech clients derive great value from services that ensure their transactions while minimizing their own IT overhead. The profitability of that service depends on Fundtech meeting strict Service Level Agreements while minimizing costs.

Reliable job scheduling software is central to providing a valuable, scalable, profitable service. Unfortunately, the automated file transfer tool that Fundtech initially implemented was unreliable. “It had a lot of internal failures,” says Jessie “When it stopped working, files would just sit there and wait to be picked up.”

“The level of service that Skybot Software Support provides is unprecedented. No one else can touch it.”

Notification was in place so an administrator could quickly attend to problems. Explains Jessie, “But there were some worst case scenarios when the software would seize up and not even alert us. You can imagine how detrimental that was. We had to put manual processes in place and keep physical eyes on the system at all times. It created a huge amount of overhead.”

“Keeping physical eyes” on a 24/7 service required Fundtech to staff a third shift. Rather than working on strategic business projects during normal working hours, a skilled administrator babysat the automated system overnight. “From an organizational or business planning perspective, you don’t want to have people sitting there watching screens,” says Jessie.

“We knew we had a problem. We had to find a new solution that would work for our clients and for us. One option looked promising, but it wasn’t able to handle the huge volume of transactions we were processing. Ultimately, we felt that Skybot was the best overall solution for its robustness and amount of data it could process.”

File volume was one of the most important considerations for a replacement solution. “We’re moving hundreds of thousands of files a day,” says Jessie. “We’re adding new customers and bringing new servers online every day. We couldn’t afford a solution that would slow down if it tried to handle more than 10,000 files.”

“We’re moving hundreds of thousands of files a day and will be adding to that... We couldn’t afford a solution that would slow down if it tried to handle more than 10,000 files.”

Fundtech has set up Skybot Scheduler to work over a Microsoft Windows® infrastructure, collecting transaction files and moving them to prescribed destinations. “Skybot moves files and syncs them appropriately during processing,” says Jessie. “It also monitors the external FTP servers that pull files in and makes sure they go through the right loops.”

Skybot has also offered Fundtech an important value statement. “I’ve been pretty vocal about Skybot with our clients,” says Jessie.“I think it’s important to share information about the good products behind our services. They know that Skybot is protecting their file transfers.”

It’s also working well for the administrator. “We’ve actually eliminated the entire third shift,” says Jessie. “It was such a waste of talent. Now he’s working on things that are more important
to overall business and on a normal schedule. He’s thrilled.”

“We use a lot of good products, but the level of service that Skybot Software Support provides is unprecedented,” says Jessie. “When we had implementation questions or hit configuration walls, the support team was extremely responsive and helpful. They’ve even made changes within the product to serve specific requirements. There’s nothing else that can touch it.”